Insoles, in particular insertable insoles, for shoes have numerous functions. They improve the wearing comfort of shoes, e.g. by padding out the places facing the sole of the foot and the provision of damping elements. They are also used in the medical sector to correct faults in the gait of a person or to relax or stabilise the foot.
There are also insoles, which ventilate the inside of the shoe to counter unpleasant odours developing in the inside of the shoe. In particular with sports persons and people with heavy sweat formation, human vapours in the inside of the shoe lead to a possible strong odour which can be largely compensated with appropriate ventilation of the inside of the shoe.
Due to the described general problems, numerous patent documents deal with the formation of special shoe insoles which increase the wearing comfort of shoes or serve medical purposes.
For example, in the patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,659 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,807 insoles are described which, due to a filled out arch or an arch provided with supporting elements, cause a proprioceptive effect on the wearer of a shoe with such an insole, thereby reinforcing a foot in its structure, whereby, for example, the risk of injury is reduced.
Numerous patent specifications and applications deal with the ventilation of the inside of the shoe. For example, the applications JP-11032809A and JP-2000106908A show the inner ventilation of shoes, whereby the ventilation in both cases is provided by a pump integrated into the insole. In the application document JP-2000106908A the ventilation system also exhibits a duct, connected to the pump, and having ventilation ports, through which the air in the pump is pumped into the interior space of the shoe when the pump is pressed. Furthermore, there are also cypress chips in the pump which are intended to aromatise the ventilating air.
EP-0 903 984-B1 shows a version of a shoe internal ventilation system, consisting of a shoe outer sole, an insole and a corresponding middle sole. In this respect the invention exhibits air chambers between the middle sole and the shoe outer sole in the front section of the foot, the air from the chambers being led into the inside of the shoe through holes in the insole in the front foot section during movement due to the deformation in these sections.
Since with a shoe insole a mass-produced article is involved, it is especially important to keep the technical effort and the financial manufacturing costs of such an article as low as possible.